An increasing number of dairy operations are turning to producing the bedding for their animals themselves.
Compared with typical materials such as straw, sawdust or sand, bedding produced right on the farm offers many advantages: In addition to eliminating the costs for purchasing and disposal, the use of organic bedding does not introduce foreign microbes into the stalls, which has a positive effect on the health of the animals. Less storage space is required because the bedding material is produced fresh daily and the total quantity of liquid manure is reduced. But the most important advantage: The comfort of the cows is increased, which also raises their productivity. A material cycle is created on the farm that conserves resources, lowers costs and promotes optimal milk production!
Innovative dairy farmers know the importance of cow comfort: Under natural conditions, a cow spends roughly 12 to 14 hours per day lying down. Increased lying activity has a positive impact on the milk production as well as on hoof and rumen health. Lying down promotes circulation in the mammary gland and milk production. It has been estimated that milk production increases by one litre for every additional hour of lying time. The health of the hooves also increases with the time spent lying down. When the cow is lying down, the burden on the hooves is removed and the risk of inflammation or ulcers decreases. Lying down also offers benefits for rumen health since rumination takes place primarily in the lying position.
In other words, they are a number of convincing arguments in favour of ensuring optimal lying comfort for the animals.
Whether comfortable conditions for lying exist can be evaluated with the cow comfort index. This calculates the percentage of cows in a herd that are lying down. If 85 percent or more of the cows are lying down outside of milking times, comfortable lying conditions can be assumed.
This formula provides insight into the lying comfort of your animals:
LCI (%) = Number of correctly lying cows / number of cows in stalls x 100
Bedding plays a key role for cow comfort. Dairy farmers who use organic bedding produced themselves instead of conventional materials achieve significantly better results with their animals.
Ideal bedding features the following properties:
Since then, several thousand FAN Green Bedding Separators have been manufactured to do service on dairy farms around the globe. They modify the moisture levels, volume and consistency of the starting material to produce high-quality and inexpensive organic bedding. The process complies with all pertinent regulations and is therefore also positively supported by the European Union.
The customer base has increased continuously, and in recent years a particularly large number of dairy farmers in Great Britain have switched to FAN green bedding. A study commissioned by Dairy Co. and carried out with the involvement of international scientists and veterinarians came to the conclusion that organic bedding material is highly recommendable. It is important that the material is always fresh and used exclusively on the farm where it is produced.
